Today was the first time I’d actually seen the terrible stuff being posted around here – I’d heard the talk, but never experienced it first hand. I can only imagine how people sitting at their computers with their children must feel.

It seems obvious that some more aggressive moderation, most importantly in the various different time zones, is required.

My suggestion is that you create a single “report point” – be it an email addy, a specific thread for reports, or a “pseudo-user” to whom to report breaches and perceived breaches. Internally any such reports get automagically sent to a “group” of moderators whom you know, whose judgment you trust etc, and containing at least one, better two, in each time zone. The faster inappropriate stuff gets removed the less likely it is to get seen, and the less chance there is for the follow-up comments, and therefore the flame wars, to start.

We, the average LJ (actually I only dream of getting to “average” level), don’t need to know how many there are or who they are, which would, I think, help prevent them becoming attack points.

To all those people leaving all I’d say is to take a break from LJ for a while – I think that this is just a phase – soon the storm will pass and the sky will again be clear.

-- "Do not speak – unless it improves on silence." --- "Following the rules and protecting the regulations is binding oneself without rope."

I agree that the only way to really stop this foolishness is to put a method in place for it to be removed as soon as it is posted. Martin has actually been pretty lucky up to now to be able to maintain a site this large without moderation.

Moderation is needed by by. Too many follow-on posts to the recent garbage, contain personal attacks on members and inappropriate language. It is a shame that this stuff is being posted in the first place, but don’t glorify it by giving credibility to those that are supporting it. These events will become a post mark in the history of LumberJocks, just don’t add to the flame wars.

Now that somebody has posted some Really inappropriate images, there is a new dynamic in place among certain members. It’s unfortunate, in my opinion, that a few stealthy members have gotten away with fomenting anger on the site while flying below the radar of impropriety. I found it odd, that the people I have blocked for bad behavior are the ones stepping forward to pat our Moderator on the back. That’s because they know they can target a person’s self-esteem and bust their head that way without calling attention to themselves by the powers that be. It will continue to happen, as long as somebody with a copy of “Critique of Pure Reason” in their back pocket can come in here and poke the eyes of a person with perhaps less-organized thoughts or other vulnerabilities. Or, the person who resorts to name-calling whenever her own opinion is threatened. These are the people who claim victimhood, and lobby for censorship, in a continual hue-and-cry. They operate invisibly, under the banner of Agent Provocateur. I’ve initiated many thoughtful threads, and then I stand back and observe while the usual suspects start to instigate bad comments by one another, until it becomes a free-for-all. It’s not the foul-mouthed, it’s these so-called stealthy double agents showing Martin their innocent side while they agitate individuals who really only came into the forum for coffee and chat. Those who cruise on an ocean of moral relativism are dancing the jig for sure now, like when a kid is about to get in trouble for breaking a window… and his brother accidently smashes the rare antique in the living room…kid #1 revels in his free ‘pass.’

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

I agree that we something to make sure what’s being posted is not posting adult material at the minimum. It’s fine if some spam sneaks by because Martin can clean that up. But the adult material is bad as many of us look at this work in around our kids and our co-workers at least I know I do and others have indicated the same.

Perhaps there needs to be a probationary period for new users. One possibility is that a new user would be able to do everything except post photos. Then when he has proven himself to be legitimate, which should include more than silence, he will be given photo-posting rights.

Of course, this will require that someone make the determination of legitimacy.

I cannot imagine that a person with a mind so deficient that he would devote great amounts of time to posting pornography on a family-oriented woodworking web site would ever have the patience to wait to the end of the probation to reach his “goal”. Also, I am sure that in the meantime, his true colors would show in his postings.

I’m sure Martin has the IP address of the person who posted what ever it was. I’m also pretty sure it was a violation of that person’s agreement with is ISP. The Internet offers certain freedoms and capability which I don’t want to see go away. Yes these can be abused but it can be easily dealt with. Those abuses in no way reflect on others not involved. There are remedies in place to resolve this and I’m sure Martin is taking appropriate action, in private as it should be.

A probation period is common, after x days or posts you do y, and have the level of access go up based on your number of postings. You could incorporate a user feed back system of “likes” to increase access to features.

I made this post on other threads and thought I should place it here too:

You know what could do more harm to Martin and his advertisers???? Not just a few dirty photos, but all of us dragging this issue on and on and on……. The advertisers may not know a thing about it, but they will as long as we keep flooding the site with the stuff. And now, it’s not in one place (one thread), there is something going on about in just about every category there is. At least if we did have the Coffee Lounge, all of the negative stuff would be in one place. Don’t you guys think its time we let it go and let Martin handle it. It is his job ya know.- JJ